United States President Joe Biden's administration has reached a settlement with migrant families separated at the border under the previous government, allowing them to stay in the US and apply for asylum.
The agreement was filed on Monday in federal court in San Diego and concludes years of negotiations that have been part of a class-action lawsuit. It sought to address the harm inflicted by family separations that the American government carried out in 2017 and 2018.
Migrant Family Separations
The previous policy was a key component of the Trump administration's efforts to curb unauthorized immigration. Officials systematically took children away from their parents and sent them to shelters and foster homes nationwide. On the other hand, their parents were criminally charged for unlawfully entering the country.
The policy aimed to deliver a powerful deterrent to families who wanted to come to the United States, even those who wanted to seek asylum. In total, several thousand foreign-born children were taken from their families. It later emerged that hundreds of U.S.-born children crossing the border with migrant parents were also subjected to the policy, as per the New York Times.
Various images and audio recordings of children being taken from their parents later sparked outrage and criticism. Eventually, the situation resulted in a wave of lawsuits, including the class-action lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
Roughly three-quarters of the families separated under the Trump-era policy have either been reunified or provided the information they need to start the reunification process.
If the settlement is approved by the judge overseeing the case, it would grant the families permission to live and work lawfully in the United States while waiting for a decision on their asylum claims. Parents and children who have been separated and are already in the country can petition to bring immediate family members from their home countries.
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Supporting Separated Families
The Department of Justice (DOJ) also said that under the proposed agreement, new standards would be established to limit migrant family separations in the future. The settlement would also prohibit separations unless there are concerns about the wellness of the migrant child, national security issues, medical emergencies, or in the case of criminal warrants, according to ABC News.
Additionally, it would provide continued support services for the people who were separated under the Trump administration. This includes the coverage of the cost of medical bills that were incurred during or because of the separations.
In a statement on Monday, a senior official from the DOJ said, "the fact that someone enters the United States unlawfully is not a basis for future separations. It's only if someone has committed a serious felony offense."
There would also be special support services for families separated at the border under the previous administration. CNN said this would include immigrant legal services and three additional years of behavioral health counseling.
